2023 Windsor and Maidenhead Borough Council election

2023 Windsor and Maidenhead Borough Council election
All 41 seats to Windsor and Maidenhead Borough Council; 21 seats needed for a majority
	Result and the vote share of the top candidate in each ward
Leader before election; Andrew Johnson; Conservative	Leader after election ; Simon Werner; Liberal Democrats

The 2023 Windsor and Maidenhead Borough Council election took place on 4 May 2023 to elect members of Windsor and Maidenhead Borough Council in Berkshire, England.^[1] This was on the same day as other local elections. The election saw the Liberal Democrats win a majority of the seats on the council, which had previously been under Conservative control.

Overview

Windsor and Maidenhead Borough Council had been under Conservative majority control since 2007. The Conservative leader of the council was Andrew Johnson, who had been leader since 2019. Prior to the election, there were six registered political parties represented on the council (two of which were Residents' Associations) and one independent councillor. The Old Windsor Residents' Association, The Borough First Independents, and the one independent councillor had all formed a political group called the "Local Independents", led by Lynne Jones.^[2] There was one vacancy on the council immediately before the election, where a Liberal Democrat councillor for Belmont ward had resigned in March 2023.^[3]

The election saw the Liberal Democrats win 22 of the 41 seats on the council, up from 10 before the election, giving them an overall majority. The Conservatives saw their number of seats fall from 22 to 7.^[4] One of the Conservatives to lose their seat was the leader of the council, Andrew Johnson.^[5]

The Liberal Democrat leader, Simon Werner, was formally appointed leader of the council at the subsequent annual council meeting on 23 May 2023.^[6] The Conservatives appointed Maureen Hunt to be their new leader in opposition.^[7]

Before the election, the composition of the council was:

↓
22	9	9
CON	LD	IND

After the election, the composition of the council became:

↓
22	12	7
LD	OTH	CON

Summary

Election result

2023 Windsor and Maidenhead Borough Council election
Party		Candidates	Seats	Gains	Losses	Net gain/loss	Seats %	Votes %	Votes	+/−
	Liberal Democrats	32	22	13	0	13	53.7	44.6	39,208	+19.3
	Conservative	41	7	0	16	16	17.1	29.4	25,857	-13.4
	Borough First	10	7	4	0	4	17.1	10.0	8,832	-2.1
	Residents	4	4	0	1	1	9.8	4.7	4,180	-2.2
	Flood Prevention	1	1	0	0		2.4	1.2	1,099
	Labour	26	0	0	0		0.0	6.0	5,295	-3.1
	Green	6	0	0	0		0.0	1.9	1,642	+0.9
	Independent	5	0	0	1	1	0.0	1.0	1,767	-1.3
	Reform UK	1	0	0	0		0.0	0.1	123	New

Candidates

The Statement of Persons Nominated, which details the candidates standing in each ward, was released by Windsor and Maidenhead Borough Council following the close of nominations on 5 April 2023.

Ascot and Sunninghill

Ascot & Sunninghill (3 seats)
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Julian Sharpe*	1,257	48.6	−4.0
	Conservative	John Story*	1,254	48.5	−3.5
	Conservative	Asghar Majeed	993	38.4	−17.1
	Liberal Democrats	Lilly Evans	979	37.9	+15.1
	Liberal Democrats	Jonathan Pope	940	36.4	+19.1
	Liberal Democrats	Sanjay Karia	877	33.9	+15.3
	Labour	John Gripton	472	18.3	+4.0
	Green	Rosemary Magill	423	16.4	N/A
Majority
Turnout			2,599	30.35
Registered electors
	Conservative hold		Swing
	Conservative hold		Swing
	Conservative hold		Swing

Belmont

Belmont (2 seats)
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Simon Bond*	1,641	71.0	+27.6
	Liberal Democrats	Sian Martin	1,585	68.6	+30.7
	Conservative	Mohammed Ilyas	502	21.7	−6.7
	Conservative	William Scawn	494	21.4	−5.2
	Labour	Patricia Lattimer	245	10.6	−1.4
Majority
Turnout			2,325	42.90
Registered electors
	Liberal Democrats hold		Swing
	Liberal Democrats hold		Swing

Bisham and Cookham

Bisham & Cookham (2 seats)
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Mandy Brar*	2,101	81.1	+25.0
	Liberal Democrats	Mark Howard	1,887	72.8	+32.3
	Conservative	Gerry Clark*	526	20.3	−20.6
	Conservative	Tom Weiss	375	14.5	−23.1
	Labour	Georgina Grouse	94	3.6	−0.9
	Labour	Mel Stack	65	2.5	+0.2
Majority
Turnout			2,598	49.77
Registered electors
	Liberal Democrats hold		Swing
	Liberal Democrats gain from Conservative		Swing

Boyn Hill

Boyn Hill (2 seats)
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Adam Bermange	1,466	64.7	+42.3
	Liberal Democrats	George Shaw	1,383	61.0	+39.0
	Conservative	Gurpreet Bhangra*	636	28.1	−17.5
	Conservative	Anuj Khanna	580	25.6	−24.4
	Labour	Marios Alexandrou	195	8.6	−1.7
	Labour	Pat McDonald	165	7.3	+0.4
Majority
Turnout			2,275	44.26
Registered electors
	Liberal Democrats gain from Conservative		Swing
	Liberal Democrats gain from Conservative		Swing

Bray

Bray (2 seats)
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Borough First	Suzanne Cross	907	45.9	+15.6
	Conservative	Leo Walters*	746	37.7	−14.7
	Borough First	Glynis Crane	726	36.7	N/A
	Conservative	Derek Wilson	691	35.0	−19.9
	Liberal Democrats	Bruce Adams	317	16.0	−3.5
	Liberal Democrats	Timothy Martin	262	13.3	+1.4
	Labour	Robert White	175	8.9	+0.9
Majority
Turnout			1,981	35.47
Registered electors
	Borough First gain from Conservative		Swing
	Conservative hold		Swing

Clewer and Dedworth East

Clewer & Dedworth East (2 seats)
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Borough First	Helen Price*	1,160	69.3	+26.9
	Borough First	Alison Carpenter	945	56.4	*N/A*
	Conservative	Phillip Bicknell	371	22.1	−13.8
	Conservative	Hashim Bhatti	286	17.1	−18.5
	Labour	David Sanders	247	14.7	+3.0
	Independent	Richard Margison	169	10.1	N/A
Majority
Turnout			1,676	31.26
Registered electors
	Borough First hold		Swing
	Borough First gain from Residents		Swing

Clewer and Dedworth West

Clewer & Dedworth West (2 seats)
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	WWRA	Wisdom da Costa*	778	39.8	−11.4
	WWRA	Carole da Costa*	759	38.8	−6.4
	Independent	Edward Wilson	649	33.2	−9.3
	Independent	Malcolm Alexander	424	21.7	−17.3
	Independent	Jon Davey*	418	21.4	−23.8
	Conservative	Ian Haggart	299	15.3	−27.2
	Conservative	Lars Swann	244	12.5	−26.5
	Labour	Deborah Foster	212	10.8	+2.9
Majority
Turnout			1,960	35.95
Registered electors
	WWRA hold		Swing
	WWRA hold		Swing

Clewer East

Clewer East (2 seats)
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Karen Davies*	1,469	77.0	+34.7
	Liberal Democrats	Amy Tisi*	1,468	76.9	+33.6
	Conservative	Nicola Pryer	402	21.1	−19.0
	Conservative	Kaumil Shah	336	17.6	−21.6
Majority
Turnout			1,914	37.84
Registered electors
	Liberal Democrats hold		Swing
	Liberal Democrats hold		Swing

Cox Green

Cox Green (2 seats)
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Chris Moriarty	1,677	69.4	+43.5
	Liberal Democrats	Gary Reeves	1,597	66.1	+43.3
	Conservative	Phil Haseler*	678	28.1	−24.0
	Conservative	Sunil Sharma	452	18.7	−33.3
	Labour	Robert Horner	129	5.3	−2.1
	Labour	John Lupton	85	3.5	−2.6
	Green	Simon Beer	84	3.5	N/A
Majority
Turnout			2,421	44.11
Registered electors
	Liberal Democrats gain from Conservative		Swing
	Liberal Democrats gain from Conservative		Swing

Datchet, Horton and Wraysbury

Datchet, Horton & Wraysbury (3 seats)
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Flood Prevention	Ewan Larcombe*	1,099	45.4	+4.0
	Borough First	David Buckley	1,071	44.2	+13.0
	Borough First	Jodie Grove	953	39.3	+13.0
	Conservative	Margaret Lenton	748	30.9	−15.5
	Conservative	Patrick Barr	638	26.3	−11.2
	Conservative	Amit Verma	589	24.3	−6.6
	Labour	Peter Ward	394	16.3	+7.7
	Labour	Jenny Ward	289	11.9	+0.6
	Green	Zsofia Macho	278	11.5	N/A
	Liberal Democrats	Dan Boresjo	241	10.0	−2.0
	Liberal Democrats	Joshua Trood	195	8.1	−2.9
Majority
Turnout			2,435	30.92
Registered electors
	Flood Prevention hold		Swing
	Borough First gain from Conservative		Swing
	Borough First gain from Conservative		Swing

Eton and Castle

Eton and Castle (3 seats)
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Julian Tisi	1,701	54.6	+32.4
	Liberal Democrats	Devon Davies	1,686	54.2	+28.8
	Liberal Democrats	Mark Wilson	1,667	53.5	+25.3
	Conservative	Samantha Rayner*	902	29.0	−21.2
	Conservative	Penelope Banham	869	27.9	−17.6
	Conservative	Shamsul Shelim*	670	21.5	−15.2
	Green	Michael Boyle	416	13.3	N/A
	Green	Liam Harrison	310	9.9	N/A
	Labour	Rick Ludovici	285	9.1	−3.7
	Labour	Murtaza Khan	229	7.3	−6.4
Majority
Turnout			3,124	36.94
Registered electors
	Liberal Democrats gain from Conservative		Swing
	Liberal Democrats gain from Conservative		Swing
	Liberal Democrats gain from Conservative		Swing

Furze Platt

Furze Platt (2 seats)
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Catherine Del Campo*	1,582	67.1	+19.9
	Liberal Democrats	Joshua Reynolds*	1,457	61.8	+20.9
	Conservative	Hari Sharma	577	24.5	+1.6
	Conservative	Josh Wallace	534	22.7	+0.9
	Labour	George Blair	170	7.2	+0.9
	Labour	Clive Lattimer	141	6.0	+1.9
	Independent	Tom Easten	107	4.5	N/A
Majority
Turnout			2,362	41.90
Registered electors
	Liberal Democrats hold		Swing
	Liberal Democrats hold		Swing

Hurley and Walthams

Hurley & Walthams (2 seats)
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	George Blundell	782	48.2	+28.1
	Conservative	Maureen Hunt*	765	47.2	−16.8
	Liberal Democrats	Rob Castell	664	41.0	+22.6
	Conservative	Andrew Johnson*	643	39.7	−11.2
	Green	Craig McDermott	131	8.1	N/A
	Labour	Sally Lupton	94	5.8	−4.9
	Labour	Tim Langley	72	4.4	−2.3
Majority
Turnout			1,628	34.06
Registered electors
	Liberal Democrats gain from Conservative		Swing
	Conservative hold		Swing

Oldfield

Oldfield (2 seats)
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Borough First	Helen Taylor*	1,015	53.0	+12.8
	Borough First	Geoffrey Hill*	992	51.8	+7.6
	Conservative	Seema Goyal	731	38.2	+3.8
	Conservative	Jade Jones	543	28.4	−2.0
	Labour	Louise Fairlie	307	16.0	+4.0
Majority
Turnout			1,924	36.21
Registered electors
	Borough First hold		Swing
	Borough First hold		Swing

Old Windsor

Old Windsor (2 seats)
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	OWRA	Lynne Jones*	1,419	79.1	+5.3
	OWRA	Neil Knowles*	1,224	68.2	+4.0
	Conservative	Peter Auger	274	15.3	−9.5
	Labour	Roy Reeves	254	14.2	+6.7
	Conservative	Colin Blackwell	250	13.9	−2.1
Majority
Turnout			1,795	32.08
Registered electors
	OWRA hold		Swing
	OWRA hold		Swing

Pinkneys Green

Pinkneys Green (2 seats)
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Clive Baskerville*	1,832	76.5	+26.2
	Liberal Democrats	Simon Werner*	1,819	76.0	+18.9
	Conservative	Martyn Cook	355	14.8	−15.5
	Conservative	Bern Guly	310	12.9	−13.4
	Labour	Jane Collisson	176	7.4	+2.4
	Labour	Joseph Freeman	162	6.8	+3.4
Majority
Turnout			2,405	43.62
Registered electors
	Liberal Democrats hold		Swing
	Liberal Democrats hold		Swing

Riverside

Riverside (2 seats)
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Kashmir Singh	1,622	63.0	+43.3
	Liberal Democrats	Richard Coe	1,527	59.3	+38.5
	Conservative	Sohaib Khan	776	30.1	−7.1
	Conservative	Toni Tucker	622	24.1	−9.9
	Labour	Nigel Smith	178	6.9	−1.1
	Reform UK	Jake Collingwood	123	4.8	N/A
Majority
Turnout			2,582	45.81
Registered electors
	Liberal Democrats gain from Conservative		Swing
	Liberal Democrats gain from Conservative		Swing

St Mary's

St Mary's (2 seats)
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Jack Douglas	1,199	65.9	+40.8
	Liberal Democrats	Gurch Singh*	1,123	61.7	+21.8
	Conservative	Donna Stimson*	476	26.2	−15.1
	Conservative	Hillary Su	387	21.3	−18.6
	Labour	Keith Nicholas	290	15.9	+2.9
Majority
Turnout			1,831	35.10
Registered electors
	Liberal Democrats gain from Conservative		Swing
	Liberal Democrats gain from Conservative		Swing

Gurch Singh had been elected as a Conservative in 2019 but had defected to the Liberal Democrats in 2020.^[8]

Sunningdale and Cheapside

Sunningdale & Cheapside (2 seats)
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Sayonara Luxton*	736	44.9	−7.8
	Conservative	Genevieve Gosling	698	42.5	−15.7
	Borough First	Valerie Pike	574	35.0	−0.2
	Borough First	Matt Newman	489	29.8	N/A
	Liberal Democrats	Carolyn Fallon	244	14.9	−2.5
	Liberal Democrats	Mariano Julia	218	13.3	−1.6
	Labour	Nigel Hayward	170	10.4	+5.1
Majority
Turnout			1,641	35.09
Registered electors
	Conservative hold		Swing
	Conservative hold		Swing

By-elections

Ascot & Sunninghill, 17 October 2024

Ascot & Sunninghill
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Sally Coneron	1,264	58.5	+18.4
	Liberal Democrats	George Jezard	703	32.5	+1.3
	Borough First	Matt Newman	118	5.5	New
	Labour	Nigel Hayward	74	3.4	–11.6
Majority			561	26.0
Turnout			2159	24.8
	Conservative hold		Swing	+8.6

References

^ Includes one vacant seat in Belmont ward formerly held by Liberal Democrat councillor John Baldwin until his resignation in March 2023.
^ Both before and after the election there were two Residents' Associations with two councillors each: Old Windsor (2 councillors) and West Windsor (2 councillors).

^ "Notice of elections – Borough". Windsor and Maidenhead Borough Council. 21 March 2023. Retrieved 16 April 2023.
^ "Your councillors". Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead. Retrieved 4 May 2023.
^ Bagley, James (27 March 2023). "Probed Maidenhead councillor resigns following 'outburst'". The Royal Borough Observer. Retrieved 5 May 2023.
^ "Borough elections 2023". Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead. Retrieved 5 May 2023.
^ Almroth-Wright, Indy; O'Hagan, Patrick (5 May 2023). "Local elections 2023: Leader ousted by 22-year-old as Tories lose control". BBC News. Retrieved 5 May 2023.
^ Oricchio, Elisa (25 May 2023). "New Royal Borough leader and cabinet confirmed at meeting". Maidenhead Advertiser. Retrieved 31 May 2023.
^ Preston, James (18 May 2023). "New Conservative leader says 'time to rebuild' in Windsor and Maidenhead". Maidenhead Advertiser. Retrieved 31 May 2023.
^ Roberts, George (17 June 2020). "Conservative councillor defects to Lib Dems amid suspension claims". Maidenhead Advertiser. Retrieved 31 May 2023.

[1] Includes one vacant seat in Belmont ward formerly held by Liberal Democrat councillor John Baldwin until his resignation in March 2023.

[2] Both before and after the election there were two Residents' Associations with two councillors each: Old Windsor (2 councillors) and West Windsor (2 councillors).

[3] "Notice of elections – Borough". Windsor and Maidenhead Borough Council. 21 March 2023. Retrieved 16 April 2023.

[4] "Your councillors". Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead. Retrieved 4 May 2023.

[5] Bagley, James (27 March 2023). "Probed Maidenhead councillor resigns following 'outburst'". The Royal Borough Observer. Retrieved 5 May 2023.

[6] "Borough elections 2023". Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead. Retrieved 5 May 2023.

[7] Almroth-Wright, Indy; O'Hagan, Patrick (5 May 2023). "Local elections 2023: Leader ousted by 22-year-old as Tories lose control". BBC News. Retrieved 5 May 2023.

[8] Oricchio, Elisa (25 May 2023). "New Royal Borough leader and cabinet confirmed at meeting". Maidenhead Advertiser. Retrieved 31 May 2023.

[9] Preston, James (18 May 2023). "New Conservative leader says 'time to rebuild' in Windsor and Maidenhead". Maidenhead Advertiser. Retrieved 31 May 2023.

[10] Roberts, George (17 June 2020). "Conservative councillor defects to Lib Dems amid suspension claims". Maidenhead Advertiser. Retrieved 31 May 2023.

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